Firefighters rescue German Shepherd and a tortoise from hole in Fontana

When the firefighters from the San Bernardino County Fire Department got a call about animals in need, they never assumed they would come across such an unusual sight. A huge, 70-pound tortoise and a German Shepherd got stuck into a tunnel that the tortoise dug under the backyard wall.

Capt. Jeremy Kern described the incident as odd because they’ve never seen a tortoise and a dog being friends and get into trouble together.

Firefighters work to rescue a tortoise and a German shepherd dog that became trapped in a hole in Fontana on Feb. 20, 2019. (Credit: San Bernardino Sheriff’s Department)

After the tortoise named Godzilla finished digging the 6-foot tunnel, she decided to get inside and try it out. Her doggy pal Taylor wouldn’t leave her embark on an adventure all by herself so he decided to join her.

“It appears that the dog had brought a blanket into the tunnel, resulting in the dog, blanket and tortoise becoming wedged and entangled,” Kern said.

The owner tried getting the animals out by himself but he got stuck inside too. However, he somehow managed to release himself minutes before the help arrived.

“Firefighters used tools in order to remove dirt from around the animals, along with coaxing the tortoise with lettuce in order to encourage the animal to move,” Kern said.

“In about 10 minutes, firefighters were able to un-wedge the animals and extract them out of the tunnel,” he said.

Luckily, everything turned fine at the end and both the dog and the tortoise were unharmed. We hope next time they’ll have fun together doing something less dangerous.